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Pawel Wlodkowic
Pawel Wlodkowic rector of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, was a Polish delegate to the Council of Constance (1414-18). Poland and the Teutonic Knights had a conflict at the time over the method of dealing with pagans. The Knights were waging wars against the heathen Lithuanians (including Latvians and the now extinct Prussians, an ethnic group related to the Latvians and Lithuanians) with the support of the German Emperor and visitor knights from all over Europe. When Poland and Lithuania fused (the Lithuanian prince Jagiello married the Polish queen and became the king of the united Poland and Lithuania) and the Lithuanians adopted Christianity the raison de étre of the Knights disappeared. They continued to war against the Lithuanians and the Poles supporting them, claiming that their Christianisation was deficient. At the Synod Wlodkowic in the name of Poland presented a view that also heathen have rights and that these should be respected; that Baptism must be an option and not a must enforced by military conquest. This view was adopted by the Synod and it became the norm in the Catholic world. This terminated crusades and the idea of fighting heathen for the purpose of promoting Christianity. This is a good example of the way in which morality develops in the Latin civilisation.